Halo spin-off and more original TV shows landing on Xbox One in early 2014

Microsoft's original content drive is a complex animal

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Microsoft's march into original television content on the Xbox One will begin in earnest early next year, according to the company's president of digital entertainment.

Nancy Tellem said the roll out has taken longer than the company would have hoped, but the first wave of shows are coming by the second quarter of 2014, including that hotly anticipated Steven Spielberg-produced Halo spin-off show.

Tellem, who is overseeing the acquisition and development of new content said: "We're hoping we will be able to put something up in the first quarter, at minimum second quarter."

She told Variety that progress had been slower than hoped, but "reflecting on what we've done and what lies ahead, it's been pretty good."

Template not set

Tellem admitted that Microsoft doesn't quite have its business model down as the company is not trying to be Netflix or Amazon, but is looking at a range of ways to offer content to Xbox Live subscribers.

She said: "We aren't Netflix, we aren't Amazon, we're a different animal. We're neither or we're a little like them. It all depends. The lack of black and white and this is the template and this is what we're following is very difficult. As we continue to do deals everyone's going to get more comfortable."

"Depending on the piece of content, the deals change. We're talking about exclusives, exclusive first windows, exclusive second windows. We play a lot with windows and co-production arrangements" and "whether we feel these are ideas are franchise building or we can own completely."